Increasingly, vehicle manufacturers outfit their vehicles with a wide array of wireless communications capabilities. Telematics units installed in modern vehicles can wirelessly send both voice and data communications to a variety of recipients. Recipients can be central facilities, such as call centers, that include servers and/or live advisors capable of responding to the telematics unit. Vehicles equipped with telematics units have the ability to monitor and gather a diverse array of data about vehicle-related conditions and send it via the telematics unit. Telematics units can also facilitate voice communications between vehicles and central facilities or third parties. However, while communicating voice and data transmissions, it is possible that the communication pathway through which these transmissions flow may become unsuitable to satisfactorily transmit and/or receive the transmissions. As a result, it may be helpful to identify an alternate communication channel for the telematics unit to use during unsatisfactory conditions.